Big Brands and Small Details Drive Amazon’s Apparel Dominance

Is that Amazon you’re wearing? If you shop for clothes in the U.S., the odds keep improving that the answer is yes.

PYMNTS Intelligence will publish a comprehensive Q2 2025 “Share of Wallet: Amazon vs. Walmart” report next Tuesday (Sept. 2), with market‑share and category breakouts. For now, the apparel aisle provides the sharpest view of how Amazon has leveraged its strengths to gain a significant advantage over its rivals and to court both big brands and high-end labels. Among those strengths: Prime‑powered convenience, a sprawling marketplace and ad‑funded merchandising.

“While Amazon isn’t necessarily dictating fashion trends like Zara or Nike’s direct-to-consumer channels, it has become one of the largest apparel retailers in the U.S. by gross merchandise volume,” Martin Baalam, CEO of eCommerce product management firm Pimberly told PYMNTS. “Sportswear and athleisure have been real growth engines because they play directly to Amazon’s strengths, which are primarily logistics, price competitiveness, and replenishment.”

By the Numbers

PYMNTS Intelligence finds that in Q2 2025, Amazon captured 16.4% of U.S. clothing and apparel spend. That’s about 2.5 times Walmart’s 6.6% and crushes every other major apparel retailer in the US. The annual series shown here shows how that gap opened. Amazon’s share nearly doubled from 8.5% in 2019 to 16.2% in 2024, while Walmart edged down from 7.3% to 6.4%. Quarterly details underscore the stickiness of Amazon’s lead: after a holiday peak at 17.7% in Q4 2024, Amazon still held 16.5% in Q1 2025 and 16.4% in Q2 2025; Walmart was at 6.8% and 6.6%, respectively. Apparel’s strength sits within a broader discretionary edge, evidenced by a 23.4% share of discretionary spend for Amazon in Q2 2025 versus Walmart’s 6.4%.

How did Amazon get here? Yes, it’s a combination of the elements Baalam mentioned. But it’s also a testament to Amazon’s dualistic strategy. It has its own brands, but it has also assembled an impressive number of upscale apparel and sportswear brands that operate branded stores on the site, including Coach, David’s Bridal and Uggs. The company has a Saks Fifth Avenue “shop‑in‑shop” featuring brands ranging from Stella McCartney to Fear of God. Its fashion efforts now range from premium sportswear like Nike and adidas to fashion influencer collections such as The Drop, alongside established eCommerce properties like Shopbop and Zappos. Those moves signal that luxury and near‑luxury brands are no longer off‑limits to Amazon’s platform.

“They have white labeled premium products or materials for highly purchased categories like athletic wear,” said Amrita Bhasin CEO of reverse logistics company Sotira. “They also have established exclusive partnerships with athletic companies to carry products on online storefronts like Nike. This has enabled Amazon to be the easiest platform for customers to buy and return products. More and more customers are using Amazon as a one stop search engine vs. going to each of their brand’s websites individually.”

Analysts first point to Prime’s scale and its impact on expectations. Estimates put current Prime membership at about 196 million consumers. A 2020 pre-pandemic survey found that 80% of Prime customers shopped for apparel at some point during the previous year. “Prime has rewired shopper expectations around speed and cost of fulfillment, and apparel is just the latest beneficiary,” wrote Morgan Stanley’s Brian Nowak recently.

The marketplace is the second leg: Amazon’s independent sellers and constantly turning inventory lets global brands, niche labels and luxury sellers test demand without putting inventory on Amazon’s balance sheet.

Private labels form the third leg. House brands such as Amazon Essentials, Goodthreads, and Core 10 fill pricing and fit gaps revealed by search and review data, especially in basics, where feedback loops improve sizing quickly. The fourth leg is logistics built for a category with high return rates: sizing prompts, “Try Before You Buy,” and no‑box returns at partner locations reduce shopper risk and keep repeat purchase economics viable. The fifth is advertising: a retail‑media business that generated about $47 billion in 2024 revenue, helping brands buy visibility, while subsidizing sharp prices and faster delivery that feed the rest of the flywheel.

“This hasn’t happened by accident,” said Baalam. “It’s been deliberate and multi‑layered—scale, private labels and logistics that make fashion buying feel routine.”

Perception Gap

While any Amazon executive would trade market share for a $1,000 Peter Millar blazer any day, Amazon still has a long road to be seen as an upscale apparel retailer. Search the site on men’s blazers and the first result is $89 from Amazon Essentials, and the prices go down from there.

University of Rhode Island professor Ji Hye Kang has studied whether an online marketplace can break into high fashion. Her work finds consumers rate identical jeans higher when told they were bought at Macy’s rather than Amazon, a reminder that brand context shapes quality perceptions.

“I think before the pandemic none of us thought Amazon could be successful as a fashion retailer,” said Kang, who is chair of URI’s Department of Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design. “They were struggling to change their customer’s perception that Amazon is a place for fashion purchases.”

By analyzing over 100,000 customer reviews of identical products sold on Amazon and at Macy’s, Kang compared feedback on 21 items: six pairs of men’s jeans and 15 women’s bras that were available through both retailers. She found that consumers perceived identical products differently depending on the retailer. Macy’s may be losing market share, but it retains its reputation.

Kang’s analysis also revealed that customers were more likely to leave positive reviews on Macy’s website than on Amazon’s for identical products. She says customers spoke positively of Macy’s, praising the products’ comfort and showing brand loyalty. Reviews of the same products on Amazon frequently cited concerns about quality assurance issues and sizing inconsistencies.

Amazon’s share gains will likely mean more shoppers start apparel searches on its platform and benchmark prices, delivery promises and return policies against its standard. Department stores and specialty chains can still compete on curation, service and brand storytelling, but will need seamless returns and faster fulfillment to close expectation gaps.

Off‑price remains a durable theme for value‑seeking households, while the marketplace offers brands a way to offset softer mall traffic without abandoning full‑price strategies. The decision for labels is less binary than it once looked: sell on Amazon for reach and retail‑media leverage, then differentiate off‑platform with exclusives, experiential stores and fit‑driven loyalty. Given the Q2 data and the widening discretionary gap, expect shoppers to compare everything to Amazon’s apparel value proposition. And as the data shows, many will hit the ‘buy’ button.